page_title: Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre
section_title: Province pacification
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre / Ragamuffin rebellion / Province pacification
caption_attribution_description: Herrmann Wendroth: Típica propriedade rural da zona central da Província de São Pedro, 1852. Aquarela.
context_page_description: Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre, nicknamed "the Gloved Centaur", was an army officer, politician, abolitionist and monarchist of the Empire of Brazil. Born into a wealthy family of military background, Manuel Marques de Sousa joined the Portuguese Army in Brazil in 1817 when he was little more than a child. His military initiation occurred in the conquest of the Banda Oriental, which was annexed and became the southernmost Brazilian province of Cisplatina in 1821. For most of the 1820s, he was embroiled in the Brazilian effort to keep Cisplatina as part of its territory: first during the struggle for Brazilian independence and then in the Cisplatine War. It would ultimately prove a futile attempt, as Cisplatina successfully separated from Brazil to become the independent nation of Uruguay in 1828.
  A few years later, in 1835 his native province of Rio Grande do Sul was engulfed in a secessionist rebellion, the Ragamuffin War. The conflict lasted for almost ten years, and the Count was leading military engagements for most of that time.
context_section_description: The long, strenuous walk from Pelotas to Porto Alegre and the hardships endured in the presiganga ruined Marques de Sousa's health, and he was afflicted with articular rheumatism for the rest of his life. With Porto Alegre safe, he was granted a leave of absence to recover. In the middle of 1837, he traveled to Europe for medical treatment. After a year away, and still feeling ill, Marques de Sousa secluded himself in Porto Alegre. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel on 20 August 1838. He only returned to active duty in early 1840 after he was made permanent lieutenant colonel on 2 December 1839 and given the command of the 2nd Regiment of Light Cavalry. However, the war against the Ragamuffins was still being waged, and Marques de Sousa met and defeated a rebel force in the Battle of the Várzea do Varejão on 16 September 1841. A new promotion came on 27 March 1842, when he was given the rank of colonel.
  The course of the conflict took a radical turn when the central government charged Luís Alves de Lima e Silva (then Count and later Duke of Caxias) with putting an end to the rebellion in late 1842. Marques de Sousa probably met him during Caxias' short trip to Rio Grande do Sul in 1839 as part of the Minister of War's entourage. They subsequently maintained a friendly correspondence. Marques de Sousa was removed from his position over the 2nd Regiment of Light Cavalry and instead was given command of the 7th Brigade, which formed part of the 1st Division. The brigade consisted of his former 2nd Regiment of Light Cavalry and a National Guard cavalry corps.
  Unlike his predecessors, who were notable for their inertia, Caxias went on the offensive from the start. In July 1843, Marques de Sousa attacked the rebel capital, Piratini, which had been all but abandoned by the Ragamuffins. He marched from there to Pelotas and recaptured the town he had lost in 1836. On 2 December, he fought and won a small skirmish with rebels near the imperial army's main encampment. He remained in the village of São Gabriel for most of 1844, guarding it undisturbed. The Ragamuffins were by this time on the run, and they sued for peace. Caxias chose Marques de Sousa to take a Ragamuffin representative to discuss a peace accord with the central government; they arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 12 December. The negotiations were successful, and the war came to an end on 1 March 1845.
caption: The countryside of the province of Rio Grande do Sul
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